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ROAR of the Pelican (CR123 Explosion during use, firsthand account)

I'm still reeling with shock as I type this, bandages in place. They say there's a first time for everything, and my first lithium battery explosion happened moments ago to a flashlight in my hand while operating. It was a new (to me) Pelican M6 with incan lamp assembly, just arrived as a purchase from BST. It came with batteries already installed, CR123 primaries, am almost certain were Battery Station brand. The light was operating continuously for about 20 minutes, and I picked it up to move to another part of my darkroom. I noticed the body of the light was warm, not hot to the touch. As I picked it up it I heard a hissing sound, looked down and saw a gray haze spewing out around the rubber tailcap button, this was follwed by a shockingly loud *BANG* like a large firework. Startled, I dropped the light to the ground. I wasnt wearing any socks or shoes, and seconds later there was a second explosion, the second battery letting go, that blew out the front lens and sent shards of glass into the heel of my foot, which bled profusely. I saw the second explosion produce a small jet of flame six inches out of the tailcap, shredding the rubber button. I kicked the light away by reflex, but the drama was over. The incan bulb is still intact, but the tailcap is shredded. Lens is history. My foot was bleeding quite badly, but stopped when pressure was applied. No charring of the exterior. I'm still shellshocked by the event. What is it about the Pelican M6? I love this light, have four of them. The rest are LED, never had any problems. I know of 2 other M6es, the most notorious is in the sticky thread in this section., that have met similar fates. Not at all trying to badmouth Pelican or Batt Station or scare anyone, but this caught me totally off guard.

Just thought I'd add this to the list of traumas. And a word to those fearing the vent with flame phenomenon: it is NO picnic. I NEVER expected this to happen with a STOCK lamp assembly and primaries! "Vent with flame": true to the words! There was a tremendous amount of pressure exiting the light, it was MUCH more velocity to the gas than you would see with a tea kettle on full boil for instance. I was really scared at the violent nature of the demise of the batteries. I still dont understand what went wrong. The light came shipped with those batteries and I presume the seller had included a matched pair of new ones, as he is a skilled modder and knows whats what.

Ironically I use a lot of rechargeable LiIons, sometimes unprotected cells with no bad incidents except a few dead cells from over-discharge. I always feared the vent with flame thing when I knew I was driving cells really hard but it never happened to me. Until now, with primary cells. I NEVER expected this to happen. Worst part is there was almost no warning, the hissing sound, the gray haze venting happened only seconds before the firecracker explosion. Thankfully no other injuries except the glass in my foot, which is not insignificant. This thing was LOUD! REALLY REALLY LOUD!!! The hissing/venting continued for about 10 seconds before the first explosion, I totally froze and stared at it, not able to process what was happening.

I'm still afraid to pick up the light. Its across the room from where I'm typing. I'm ninety nine percent sure its all spent, no further pyrotechnics to look forward to. I hope. There is a terrible smell along with it. Quite distinct, unlike anything I've known.

*EDIT*
Just summoned some courage and dismantled the light. The batteries are stuck in the tube, but it came apart easily enough. Snapped some pics with the point and shoot, I'll post them here....

Got the batteries out, they indeed are Battery Station CR123. BTW, Jon: I hold you at no fault whatsoever, please dont feel bad about this.

Blood all over the place. All from the glass shooting into my foot. Tremendous energy behind that explosion. I am totally without words to explain how grateful I am injuries are limited to what they are.

I want to give a nod of thanks to Newbie and SilverFox and all those who contribute to the lithium ion battery safety threads. Maybe some of you can help me figure out what the cause of this may have been. Time for the budding forensics folks out there to contribute their hypotheses.

Some pics:

the batteries are totally WET, covered in charred paste

batteries still inside the tube, head end, head removed (trembling)

bottom of stock screw in incan lamp assembly, part that mates with top battery (+) terminal

Last edited by Lunarmodule; 06-08-2006 at 08:18 PM.

LIGHT TRAVELS AT 186282.397 MILES PER SECOND... ANY FASTER WOULD BE DANGEROUS

Lunarmodule,
hope you are ok and recovering, i must say that is the most dramatic and most dangerous example of a 123 exploding
but what i dont understand is, this is a light that was not being overdriven, it was running within specification, it was not taxing the batteries,
and yet the batteries exploded.
is it purely the batteries or a combination of the specific bulb in the PM6 and the batteries
again, hope you are ok and have a speedy recovery

Lunarmodule,
hope you are ok and recovering, i must say that is the most dramatic and most dangerous example of a 123 exploding
but what i dont understand is, this is a light that was not being overdriven, it was running within specification, it was not taxing the batteries,
and yet the batteries exploded.
is it purely the batteries or a combination of the specific bulb in the PM6 and the batteries
again, hope you are ok and have a speedy recovery

Exactly my sentiments, dragoman, about the mystery of the stock setup. BTW, sincere thanks to all of you that express concern for my *OUCH*, first aid got it under control. I'll spare the gore of the foot pictures, suffice to say glass shards at velocity do wicked damage when they encounter soft targets. I cant fathom how the bulb stayed perfectly intact while the lens shattered as violently as it did. Theres some funky physics at work, never my strong suit. I think it must have been the lamp assembly was shielded from any direct pressure or flame (blast effects) because of the seal maintained by the module threading into the head end of the tube. When the explosion happened, the flame jet and blast noise (LOUD!!!! there was perceivable overpressure), rather the shock wave of the blast noise is what must have taken out the front glass.

The mystery is layers deep due to the stock lamp, no overdrive or other hijinks, nothing out of the ordinary at all. I've had a few close calls, the scariest of all was using canned compressed air to blow dust off a hotwire incan lamp's reflector right after turning the light off. This was a total bonehead move, and I accept responsibility for causing that accident. It was late at night, not thinking too clearly, just.... gotta clean that reflector. I unscrewed the bezel, removed it, aimed the little red straw at the reflector and *BLAMMO* the WA1185 blew apart into a zillion grains of glass and spread all over the room! Much worse, I wasnt wearing my glasses and was looking right at the darn thing (arms length). I got glass all over my face, but thank Heaven none anywhere near the eyes! The thermal stress from the supercold air meeting the hot glass bulb was too much. But in this situation with the PM6 there was no shenanignans, thats what makes it so terrifying!

heres a pic of the head of the light removed and the incan lamp assembly that threads into the top of the battery tube:

Last edited by Lunarmodule; 06-07-2006 at 09:15 AM.

LIGHT TRAVELS AT 186282.397 MILES PER SECOND... ANY FASTER WOULD BE DANGEROUS

In America the land of lawsuits. I understand how we wouldn't sue because it's part of the hobby, but how come I don't hear of lawsuits from everyday folk handling CR123? Maybe we need some to make the safety features actually work on these batteries.

oops..the first thing I did after I read this thread was to take out the ROP-Low I had been happily over-driving on my Mag1C with 2R123s and replace it with the much less demanding Magnum Star 5-cell! Thanks for sharing this, lunarmodule and I am glad you are ok.

I wouldnt be so quick to blame the batteries for this. I've now seen atleast 3 blown Pelican M6's.

I've owned 3 M6's over the years, and I'm curious as to whether or not the ultra stiff spring on the lamp module of the M6 is damaging the batteries in some way, causing a catastrophic failure. Perhaps it's the crappy switch somehow causing it. Perhaps it's a combination of those things.

I was terribly disappointed by my M6's for build quality and design and vowed never to buy another. Now I have one more reason to add to my list.

I am afraid that even though our battery had a $6000 upgrade almost two years ago and is UL rated, the shear numbers are working against us. We are going through almost 100,000 of them in a busy month now and it has become a numbers game more than a quality game. I can assure everyone that we have gone way overboard regarding safety. This is another reason we do not sell unprotected cells. Trouble waiting to happen.

I have spoken to people at several factories including domestic big names and they all have incidents similar to this. This is being caused by mixing batteries that are not exactly matched. I am not saying this is anyones fault or putting blame on any customer. You should not have to worry about things like this. This is a factory issue. You do of course not want to mix a discharged battery with a good one. Most people know this.

I would like to replace the light, batteries, and anything else necessary to make this right. I hope people understand this is a random freak thing that we have only limited ability to prevent. We are going to begin a program of testing every CR123A battery that goes in CPF orders and maybe every order. It is that one out of 10K or one out of 100K cells that may cause a potential problem. Please be advised that this is possible with any brand of battery. Please be careful.

I sincerely apologize for this and will take even further steps to hopefully prevent it from ever happening again. Our goal is to offer a quality product. We have never been a company to take shortcuts. There are cheaper batteries everywhere but we won't carry them.

Please give me a call with any questions or comments or ideas. We really want you to have the best.

The most likely cause is that one battery was drained more than the other one. As things warm up, the fuller charged cell tries to reverse charge the under charged cell and things heat up fast. Hydrogen gas is vented and when ignited, blows up. Once one cell is burning, it doesn't take much to ignite the other cell.

I should point out that the fumes are not good for you, nor is the slimy residue. Take care and make sure you wash your hands after playing around with the burned up batteries and light. Gloves may be an even better consideration. If you plan on storing the burned up parts, I would suggest that you move them outside.

I have had a discussion with Kevin at BatteryStation. He will be posting his thoughts shortly.

I know that the ZTS tester has not given us exact information, but it is beginning to look like a reasonable investment at this time...

Tom

Behind every Great man there's always a woman rolling her eyes...

Most batteries don't die - they are tortured to near death, then murdered...

I still cant sleep, my foot feels like its on fire. The glass is all out, just a lot of surface cuts, but it hurts like the dickens. I'm especially grateful for the well wishes from everyone. Lips said it very well. I have been known to fall asleep with a light on next to me from time to time. I cringe at what would have happened if I took this ill-fated light to bed with me. The 6V lamp is driven at 1250mA or thereabouts if I recall correctly, certainly not outside the envelope of what the batteries should safely deliver.

I've taxed rechargeables way past safe limits in some goofy mods / experiments, but I knew I was pushing limits and was prepared. Now I'm looking leery at my other Pelican M6 that I have modded with a P91 SF lamp assembly. That puppy I would have expected, it drives the batteries really hard. Why I added a 2 cell extension and use 2 protected 168 cells to run the P91 instead of 2 R123s, its a much safer load on the larger battery, as well as much better runtime. Thats almost triple the current of this incan setup, but dozens of battery cycles without a hitch. Bill Waites is right, the last incident was with SF cells. Actually I became leery of SF123 primaries after seeing so many reports of the strange accidents. All the accounts I have read have been of unattended lights that went kablooey.

I hate to be the exception. As much as it scared the bejeezus out of me, I will still use lithium ion cells. And referring to an earlier post, I wouldnt consider suing Pelican or BS for the accident, unless I was critically wounded, blinded, or paralyzed or something terrible. I done want to scare folks away from using their lights or fearing the batteries yet I felt an urgent need to post the experience. This is what I always feared, not how I thought it would come to pass.

The main point I want to get out to anyone who reads this is to know the warning signs: very, very, very short notice. The pressure release was extremely sudden and violent. I did have ten seconds or so that I could have used to throw the light away, behind a piece of furniture or into a box to contain the damage / shield myself. What I can recommend is if anyone feels their light vibrate, smells a pungent chemical odor, and/or sees or hears a rushing sound of gas like steam from a tea kettle come from the light, THROW IT AWAY FROM YOU AND ANYONE ELSE NEARBY. Treat it exactly like a firework (like a big bottle rocket) with the wick lit. Dont try to switch it off, although it may help, it may not. In my case I doubt it would have made any difference. I tried to reach for the twisty tail but I froze in place seeing the smoke jet out of the tailcap button. I reacted like a deer in headlights. I froze, just looked at the thing IN MY HAND, a part of my mind knew exactly what was happening but I couldnt think of how to stop it. Scariest part was 30 seconds later, from the time the venting started to the end of the second explosion, nothing else happened but I was so shaken I felt like the light was now an unexploded bomb. I was terrified that it could explode yet again. No experience to draw on. It took about 20 mins to even hobble back over to where it happened. I started writing this meantime because there was a browser window open. If this happens to anyone else, I can report that once the POP explosion happens, no more smoke visible, the show is over. Perhaps the safety mechanisms did work after all, in the sense that the venting stopped a much more violent explosion and the reaction died very quickly, instead of allowing a perpetual burn or worse.

There was that joke in a previous post about glad it wasnt a headlight. Im just glad it didnt blast apart into metal shrapnel in my hand. Thats another key experience to report: although quite violent and scary, there was insufficient force to shred the metal. It blew out the button/seal of the tailcap, and the flame jet looked like a toy cap gun (brief instant of about a six inch flame jet/flash) it did NOT burn me or have enough punch to even blow the tailcap off. So it is very disconcerting, all kinds of bark, relatively little bite. My injuries were sustained when the light fell to the ground after the first explosion. It hissed like a really mean snake, spewed a noxious jet of smoke out the tailcap, and went *BANG* a second time about 15 seconds after the first bang which caused me to instinctively drop the light. The second explosion on the ground shattered the front window, and instantly I felt my foot on fire. I looked down and my foot which was about half a meter from where the light landed was bleeding really bad, the splinters of glass from the lens had made about a dozen cuts in the side of my foot. It still hurts like the Dickens but no real damage done, just numerous superficial lacerations.

I never got a chance to see those videos where they induced the vent with flame phenomenon with deliberate radical overcharging, but I hope Silverfox can provide a link. I dont want everyone afraid to use their lights, as Lips said he just confidently loaded six 17500 cells into a light. I myself have been using unprotected D cell LiIons for months now and I am super cautious and a tad afraid of their unprotected nature. I have used DOZENS of Battery Station batteries without ever having any kind of problem, except one "batch" that seemed to discharge too rapidly. I.e. not long enough runtime life. I want to stress that what happened to me is the exception, but the fact that it happened at all needs to be shouted from the rooftops, hence posting here. Think of this thread as a tornado warning drill. Odds are you may never have to worry about an impending disaster spelled out by that rushing train sound and rush to the basement. But if you experience the warning signs as I have described at least you know what to expect. Again, my thanks to all that have expressed their concern for me. I'm very happy to be relatively unscathed and really appreciate the kind words.

LIGHT TRAVELS AT 186282.397 MILES PER SECOND... ANY FASTER WOULD BE DANGEROUS

Man I'm glad it wasn't worse for you. I've given these lights to friends of mine and will pass along your warnings. The only good thing is that if it ever happens again you won't get caught like a "deer in the headlights".

Thank God you're alright Lunar. I hope your injury recovers asap. Scary stuff. I think many of us have convinced ourselves that it won't happen to us. Obviously that is not always the case. All my best!

fieldops

The only light I need now is the "light at the end of the tunnel".....

I just read batterystation's crucially important post. and chevrofreak's. first of all, color me impressed. I want to say thanks to batterystation for their concern and very generous offer to replace all the damaged things. I want to reemphasize what he posted, what happened to me is the ultra rare exception, not the rule. Ordinarily, I always test the battery (voltage, etc) and do a number of checks on a new light (good ground, clean threads, everything tight, etc. I made an exception with this light. I deviated from my normal routine and just went ahead and started using the light. Batterystation brings up several crucial points. Out of a hundred thousand a month, there's a handful of incidents like this. Not fun if it happens to you but as likely as a plane crash. Myself I have logged hundreds of thousands of air miles with one "forced rough landing", cant call it a real crash. And I never feared air transportation, because of the very high safety probability. Same goes for these batteries, I dont think it was batterystation's defective product that caused this. ANY mismatched cells would behave the same way, and as I said before perhaps the safety vent prevented a much larger explosion, allowing only a relatively small amount of hydrogen to ignite. i concur with chevrofreak's assertions, that there is a disproportionate amount of PM6es with reports of these explosions. Its supposition but I have also noted the ultra stiff top spring putting a lot of pressure on the cells. One of my PM6es is McModule LED only with 18650 cells and a Kroll tailswitch, it puts very little pressure on the cell. Its several years old with no problems. I also dont fault the fellow who loaded the batteries, as I said he is an experienced modder who wouldnt knowingly load it with mismatched cells. i fault myself for not checking the voltage as I customarily do, that would have identified a mismatch and avoided the incident.

But as BS maintains, the end user (consumer) shouldnt have to worry about these things, it should be plug and play. i am VERY impressed not only by their concern to make things right and to go to even excessive means to insure safety, but the fact that there was a manufacturer's response, as inclusive and righteous, not at all C.Y.A. tactics within HOURS of the incident, not days or weeks. I urge Pelican to show the same effort. If someone from Pelican can make a formal statement I will be as remotely impressed (and very pleasantly suprised) as I am with batterystation coming out and posting. that earned huge respect from me, my compliments. I only wish the Sears would come forward like that in the case of my refrigerator that went kablooey (dead compressor) exactly eleven weeks out of warranty. I raised Cain with their customer service folks and got the company boilerplate CYA reply: "according to our warranty terms, its out of date and unable to be serviced, we want to keep you as a customer, so here's a handy rebate for free install of a new unit...." no repair, no replace, no discount, just a free install and I get to accept my fridge is a six foot tall disposable Bic lighter. Dontcha just hate when manufacturers want to have you be happy to buy designed-to-fail-just-out-of-warranty product?

Batterystation offered to fix everything, not just replace batteries, no proof of purchase demanded or forms to fill out. THATS an old school way to stand up for your product and more importantly your customers. I'm very impressed by that. Cheers Batterystation!

Back on track, Batterystation has nothing but good marks from me and if I felt them negligent or cutting corners I'd say so. It also says a LOT that they made the post they did, essentially a public statement ackowledging the realities of the market.

I would really like to hear from Pelican on this..... they DO have that you break it we fix it forever deal. Well, it's REAL broken now....

In seeing the response generated by this incident, in a very weird way I'm glad it happened. I've got my 2 front teeth and awareness is up as a direct result.

In all, PTSD nonwithstanding, its OK.

LIGHT TRAVELS AT 186282.397 MILES PER SECOND... ANY FASTER WOULD BE DANGEROUS

How many reports have there been here of lights running 123 primary cells that have "vented with flame" like this? If there are others it would be nice to compile all the links here or in some one thread. Many other lights use primary 123 cells; what are some of the other makes of lights that have had cells "vent with flame"?

So what deviation from voltage among batteries is deemed ok? I just tested a batch of batterystation, surefire, panasonic and some goldston (I think, got them on ebay a while ago)... from each brand the deviated a tenth of a volt or so... batterystation's were in the 3.3v's and the surefire's were in the high 3.1's but some of my batterystation batteries varried maybe 2-3 hundreths... I'm not that experienced, where's the line?